Page 80 of Tracking Safety

He glanced back at Jenna, who seemed to read his meaning. She positioned herself between Liam and the two men.

Then Luke turned and moved a few yards up the path, far enough that Liam wouldn’t hear but close enough Luke could still see him.

Travis followed, as unhurried as a man taking a Sunday stroll.

Luke stopped and faced him. “The cottages.”

Travis raised his eyebrows. “What about them?”

“Someone put a rock through the windows. Tore up some of the new siding. Kicked in a door.” Luke kept his voice even. “Did significant damage.”

Travis shook his head slowly, the picture of a concerned neighbor. “That’s a shame. You get a surprising number of lost hikers out this way on your property. Could’ve been anybody.”

Luke fisted his hands. “It wasn’t anybody.”

Travis cocked his head to the side. “You got proof of that?”

“I’ve got security footage.”

“Do you?” Travis worked the toothpick. “Well then . . . sounds like you don’t need anything from me.”

“I need you to understand something.” Luke held his gaze. “Whatever you think you’re going to get away with—you won’t. I’ll make sure of it.”

Travis looked at him with something that wasn’t quite amusement and wasn’t quite contempt but lived in the neighborhood of both. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Stop playing games, Travis.”

“I’m not playing games. I found your boy wandering around out here.” Travis spread his hands in a gesture of open innocence. “That’s the truth. I don’t know anything about your cottages.”

Neither of them spoke a moment.

Finally, Travis shrugged. “I’m glad I found the boy when I did. These woods go on a good while past this point. It doesn’t take much for a person to get turned around out here.”

He glanced toward Liam then back at Luke.

“It’s a dangerous place for someone who doesn’t know where they’re going,” he added. “All kinds of things can happen.”

Travis’s words and tone sounded ordinary.

They were anything but.

Anger swept through Luke like a current—clean and hot and entirely controlled.

He didn’t move. He didn’t step forward or raise his voice or do any of the things that he wanted to do. Instead, he held Travis’s gaze and let the silence do the work.

Travis held his stare a beat longer than was comfortable. Then he nodded with a small, satisfied dip of the chin. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

He turned and moved back into the trees the way he’d come.

Luke watched him until couldn’t see the man anymore.

Then he breathed out slowly through his nose and turned.

Liam was watching him from down the path with his careful eyes. Jenna stood close beside him, not touching him but present.

Luke walked back to his son, knowing he’d made the right choice by remaining in control. He had to be careful of the example he set for Liam. A boy remembered his father’s actions more than he did his words. And Luke had always taught Liam that violence wasn’t an answer—even when it might be a desire.

Whatever came next with Travis Henderson—and something would come next—it wasn’t going to happen in front of his eight-year-old.